"You know that won't last, right? Considering the size of the pot and the feeding frenzy the media is in right now to discover who won, someone will leak your name at some point."
George shuddered at the very idea. He'd seen the rabid sharks on the nightly news, questioning who had won the entire one point six billion dollars. It was scary. "I know, but maybe it will give me the time I need to get all my ducks in a row."
"You need security." Ford's eyes widened comically. "Lots of security."
"Uncle Allan said he had a friend from his days in the service that he could call, someone who knows about that type of thing."
"Well, Dad does know quite a few people from his time in the service." Ford frowned as he crossed his arms. "He doesn't talk about his service much, so I guess it was pretty nasty. I just hope this guy he calls isn't a complete loon."
"Do you think it was hard because of the circumstances or because he was a shifter?"
George had often wondered how shifters could serve in the military. It wasn't the whole serving his country thing he didn't understand. He got that part. It was a shifter taking orders from someone else.
Granted, he could probably take orders. He was pretty laid back about most things. But a lot of shifters had more aggressive natures. Taking orders had to be hard.
Ford shrugged. "Like I said, he doesn't talk about that time of his life very much."
"Yeah." George could understand that.
"So, have you thought about what else you'd like to do with the money? You can pretty much do anything."
"I don't know yet. I've been thinking about getting a place out in the country, maybe far enough up in the mountains where no one would be bothered if I shifted. I also don't want to be right on top of neighbors."
"Well, if you can't find anything, you can always buy a plot of land and build what you want."
That idea had merit. If he bought a big enough place, he wouldn't even have to see his neighbors. As for building a place, that actually intrigued him more than buying a pre-built house. He could design it just the way he wanted, with tall ceilings and wider doorways. He hated squeezing into some places. They made him feel like a freak.
"I want one of those custom-made beds with a mattress big enough for me to have room to roll around on and not have my feet hang off the end." That had been a dream of his since he grew past six foot.
Ford snickered. "Yeah, I could see where that would be nice."
"And I want a fireplace." George fantasized about shifting then stretching out on the floor in front of a warm fireplace. His apartment wasn't bad, but it got a bit chilly in the winter.
"I'd like a pantry big enough to hold everything I'd need for hibernation would be nice, too." George swallowed hard when saliva pooled in his mouth. He loved honey. "Salmon. I could have wild caught salmon delivered every single day."
"Yeah, but you'd get tired of salmon after a while."
George shook his head rapidly. "No, I wouldn't."
He was positive of it.
"Ohhh." Ford's eyes grew big. "Can you imagine the amount of honey you could get? And you could get the really good stuff, not that crap they sell down at the corner market."
"Oh yeah, that'd be nice." Good-quality honey was hard to come by. Most of the time, George had to make do with whatever he could find around the neighborhood.
"Honey buns," Ford said. "Like the ones they sell down at Partly Sunny Bakery."
"Fresh wild elderberries," George countered. He loved elderberries almost as much as he loved honey. "Fresh wild elderberries dipped in honey."
Ford grinned. "Honeycomb."
Yeah, that was a lot of honey, but they were bears. They loved honey as a general rule.
George groaned and rubbed his stomach. "Now, I'm hungry."
"Yeah, me too." Ford chuckled. "Want to go get a burger?"
George grinned. "Only if it has honey on it."
